Columbia Community Objects to Israeli Global Center

This petition protests the refusal of the state of Israel to permit entry to Professor Katherine Franke of Columbia University. Franke arrived to meet with Israeli and Palestinian colleagues. She was interrogated for 14 hours before being sent back to NY and told she was barred from entry. We adamantly oppose the creation of a Columbia Global Center in Israel, particularly, though not only, because many members of the Columbia community would be denied entry to Israel because of their speech, or their academic and political work. This denial is in violation of Columbia’s core values, and Columbia must similarly deny to support, through association, such actions.

We, the undersigned members of the Columbia community are outraged at the actions of the Israeli government to detain, interrogate, and deny a member of the Columbia faculty entry to the state of Israel, and by implication to Palestine. This is particularly objectionable when these actions are taken on account of a faculty member’s academic and political work that seeks to hold Israel – and other states – accountable to international human rights laws and norms.

We are shocked and disappointed that Columbia’s President and Provost have not issued strong statements articulating a commitment to the fundamental values of academic freedom and defending our faculty’s right to interrogate uncomfortable, inconvenient, or controversial matters of public concern, both in the U.S. and abroad.

Finally, we adamantly oppose the creation of a Columbia Global Center in Israel, particularly, though not only, because many members of the Columbia community would be denied entry to Israel because of their speech, or their academic and political work. This denial is in violation of Columbia’s core values, and Columbia must similarly deny to support, through association, such actions.